The activities associated with banking, accounting, and other financial-related functions have existed for as long as money itself. From Babylon and Rome to medieval Europe, accountants and financial advisors have always existed in some shape or form.

But while their roles and duties may have grown more complex, their cultural associations remain surprisingly unchanged for the most part. Money-hungry advisors. Penny pinching merchants.

Are these biases? Misconceptions? Actual truths?

In any case, any form of lead generation for accountants is compromised because of these perceptions.

When your target leads are women business decision-makers, it’s not a huge stretch to try and consider workplace gender issues, especially when you think tackling these can help you better understand and engage your leads. Be warned, though, that dwelling too much on things like these can backfire on your campaigns.

Late last year, the story of Samantha West, a telemarketer pitching for health insurance leads, caused quite a stir when Time ran an article about how its reporters were able to uncover that the agent had been a robot all along. There was certainly nothing new about ‘robocalls,’ but it was Samantha’s persistent denial of her robotic origins along with an uncanny resemblance to a live person that really unnerved a lot of folks. It turns out, Samantha was part of a growing type of call center service known as ‘agent-assisted automation,’ and it’s something you need to be very, very careful about.